Identification and Genetic Relationship of the Principal Rootstocks Cultivated in Italy

Abstract

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) profiles were produced for 27 of the most common rootstocks in Italy. The varieties were chosen for practical purposes, as they are the most widely commercialized and provided the opportunity to have more than one clone or accession for each variety, apart from three. The plant material, a total of 86 samples, was primarily from the collections of CRA-VIT and the Nucleo di Premoltiplicazione delle Venezie. The use of reliable references, obtained from the French collection of Le Grau du Roi, confirmed that in Italy 157-11C was often confused with 161-49C. Comparison of the rootstock alleles with those of 663 genotypes of V. vinifera L. showed that polymorphisms at the single loci differed in the two groups and that there were alleles specific to the rootstocks and absent in the V. vinifera varieties. These data could be very useful for identification of the probable genesis of hybrids of unknown origin.